Reversible Errors

Special Installment: Good Friday

Defendants who feel that the justice system gave them a bad deal might be able to get a new trial or a verdict overturned on the basis of “reversible errors.” Jesus did not exercise this option.

The plot to kill Jesus was not cooked up overnight. According to John 11:53, the high priest Caiaphas and his cohorts had set that plan in motion several days beforehand, right after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. So imagine that someone from the high priest's circle started a checklist of what needed to be done to get Jesus executed. Robert McAfee Brown suggests it might have read like this:

+ Sound out Judas. Get him to keep us posted on Jesus' whereabouts.

+ Check with priests about bribe money for Judas.

+ Alert guards to be ready to follow Judas at a moment's notice.

+ Arrange for half a dozen people to meet with [the Sanhedrin legal officer]. Have him drill them on charges to make against Jesus at the trial.

+ Requisition funds from Caiaphas to pay off the "witnesses."

+ Hire a messenger to call members of the high court (Sanhedrin) together at a moment's notice. (Impress on him that we've got to pull this thing off before the Passover, since no one can be put to death during the ...